1 The Big Sick (15)
(Michael Showalter, 2017, US) 120 mins
Standup Kumail Nanjiani and his partner wrote this film based on real experience, and it shows. Who, otherwise, would pitch the concept of a Pakistani comic who bonds with his non-girlfriend’s white parents while she’s in a coma? It’s a fine set up for crosscultural awkwardness and comedy-circuit satire, but there’s also a heartfelt tenderness that lifts this to another level.
2 Dunkirk (12A)
(Christopher Nolan, 2017, Neth/UK/Fra/US) 106 mins
The evacuation of Dunkirk becomes an immersive, intense experience in Nolan’s capable hands. Viewing the event from the beach, the Channel and the air via three intersecting storylines, it’s short on talk but the ticking-clock tension says all that needs to be said.
3 Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (U)
(David Soren, 2017, US) 89 mins
This lively, subversive animation deserves the summer holiday vote, with its message that school is boring and livening things up is no crime. The eponymous superhero, the brainchild of two overly imaginative pranksters, surprisingly leaps off the page and into the mind of their authoritarian headteacher. Chaos, misadventure and toilet humour ensue.
4 Girls Trip (15)
(Malcolm D Lee, 2017, US) 122 mins
Many have tried and failed to do a female equivalent of The Hangover, but this one cracks the formula. That’s mostly thanks to four women whom we easily buy as old friends (Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish). There are scrapes, sexual encounters and sisterhood – but this crowd-pleaser pulls it all together.
5 Hounds of Love (18)
(Ben Young, 2016, Aus) 108 mins
This story of an Australian couple who abduct and sexually torture schoolgirls is unlikely to draw the crowds, but it’s skilfully executed and perhaps less gruelling than you’d expect. Mercifully, it’s more interested in the characters than the horror – both the oddball perpetrators and their resourceful victim.
